One and the Same
by KoharaAho
Summary: Some things cannot be helped. You can go ahead and try. It all ends the same.


_Updated 12/4/10_

_**A/N: **This fic was inspired by the relationship between Yuu and Karasu. I started it after I first started watching the show. I completely wrote my own take on it, thus this is why Karasu in fact has black hair and fervent green eyes. My idea was that this is an encounter between them in a separate dimension so I took some liberties._

_**One and the Same**_

How could this be?

The moment I laid eyes on this man before me, I knew, things were somehow going to be different. The glowing translucent rope attaching him to a place in the heavens played little part in our first encounter. The moment his booted foot touched the soft grass, the very second he came into this dimension, my life was never to be the same again. All of my hopes, my plans for my future. They were to simply become an intangible goal. A dream that once I awoke from, would be forever over and utterly forgotten. The things of the past would become inconsequential occurrences; meaningless and only troubling memories.

He didn't have to say anything. I already knew, but my stubborn tendencies chose at that moment to defy the reality before me.

"Who are you!" I screamed in unrecognizable rage.

The man stepped off the wooden fence that encompassed the small park, floating slowly down to the grass. The first physical connection to the earth in his present form. His features were mostly obscured by a black half-mask. The black cloak he wore swayed about his form under the force of an invisible wind. Piercing green eyes were the only naked part of him.

I stood my ground but my body trembled to spite me. It was beyond my control, along with everything else it seemed.

The man's dark silhouette thinned as he took a half step forward. His eyes still held mine from across the field. They had a playfulness to them. A lot like a the way a child with salt looked upon a trapped snail. I growled in retaliation.

"Who are you?" I demanded again, it came out as a steady whisper. His silence ended with an amused huff. Another half step and he fully faced me. Dark green eyes still penetrating.

He began to chuckle. It started low and guttural, growing in volume until the leaves shook, a sound I would never forget.

His posture was relaxed and unguarded. Once his laughter subsided he looked at the rope loosely attached to his back with mild interest, eyeing its path up into the damp sky.

My anxiety was building, coming close to that fine point. If he did not speak soon, I was sure to crumble and wither away at that very spot.

"You know who I am. How could you forget?" He asked coolly as he halfheartedly handled the rope, as if he was bored. It glowed brighter for the briefest of moments at every place his finger touched.

"You have me mistaken for someone else. I've never seen you in my life." I was lying to him, to myself, all awareness beyond me.

"Oh come on. Cut the bullshit."

I stood silent. Feigning confusion and actually feeling complete confusion. Playing to my own façade. The tug-a-war in my head left me dizzy.

He eyed me curiously, his familiar dark green eyes digging deeper. They never once left mine.

"You may have not seen me like this before. I was younger... but there's no way you cannot recognize me." He cocked his head slightly, there was no question in his voice. "I'll forewarn you, there's nothing you can hide from me. There may be some time between us but that does not change how well I know you. I know and remember you _too_ well," He leaned against the fence, getting comfortable. "just as you know me."

He waited for me to say something, patience and confidence oozing. I figured I wouldn't make him wait, at least not to long.

"I have no idea where you're getting all this. I don't know you. You most certainly do not know me." I was a bystander, helplessly watching and listening to my fear. "I'll ask you again, who and what are you?" I was in denial.

I knew that black hair. I knew those eyes in front of me.

I saw them everyday, only in a different light. I was hiding the truth from myself, protecting the last threads of hope.

The truth was I was fully aware of what I was doing and that brought my confusion to a choking height. Fear was in control and I had no chance against it.

He laughed again.

"Oh but I do. I really _dooo_."

His speech reminded me of an icicle, smooth and narrow, coming to a sharp tip.

"I must say, I'm really quite hurt. How can I be so unimportant to you? So easily disregarded..."

I tried to shake away the words.

"I would never do that to you. How could I do that to you when you played such a big part in my life?"

_No._

"You _are_ the reason I'm here today, my most dearest sel—"

"SHUTUP! I don't want to play whatever game you're starting!" The desperation was leaking out of my well kept boundaries, threatening to engulf me.

"Game? Silly boy, if there is any game being started here, you my friend are the culprit!" He yelled that time, his calm noticeably dwindling into an impatience. A madness danced around him, it could come forth at an ease no less then the flip of a switch.

My throat felt so dry and raw. Every swallow of the cold night air felt instead like edged rocks. Their procession down into my lungs slow and unforgiving.

"I'm going to have to show you aren't I?" He seemed to say to himself, his composure was parting. His first mask was slowly being removed; the one that hugged his far away mind.

The simple task of standing was becoming an aching chore; I began to feel the weight pour over me. Without much of a warning I finally stumbled under it all, falling with a harsh thud to the ground. My legs nothing more than soggy wood. I pushed myself up as well as I could, settling with sitting against a tree. Its large umbrella of leaves casted a comforting shadow all around me. The only comfort I would receive that night.

The masked man paid no heed to my descent. He looked smugger than anything else, but there was an edge to it; his recognition to my ending resolve was obvious. There was no denying that on all parts.

He walked towards me, taking his sweet time. A numbness took me.

I was looking but seeing nothing. Listening but not hearing. Each sense went out one by one.

_Some things cannot be helped. You can go ahead and try. It all ends the same._

He was before me now, down in a squat to be eye level. I always hated those eyes. They held a forest within them, green with moisture like a forest just after rainfall. Leaves thick to block any openings to the blue that was the sky.

I wasn't in the park anymore. I wasn't anywhere. It was just him and I, nothing else remotely relevant.

"You were always unreasonably obstinate. Never seeing what was plainly splayed before you." It was almost like he spoke with affection. Almost.

"So weak." His hand was grasping his mask, pulling at it slowly until it sat below his chin to cling loosely to his neck. I watched the words seep through his lips as they moved.

"Coward." He laughed until he cackled.

My head shook without thought. The sight before me burned my eyes and traveled much deeper, I looked away seeking relief and pulled my eyes closed. He snatched my chin and held it.

"You can't run from this one." He was suddenly so calm. Such a contrast to my trembling state.

There was no taking back what I saw. I knew his face better then I knew any other. I knew it because it had been with me since the day I was born. I knew it because it was my own.

"My dearest self. You tried so hard." His grasp slackened then moved to gently rub my cheek. A breath stood between our faces. "What wasted effort. All those years... All that and guess what happened."

"No. NO!" I cried.

"Yes. YES!" He cried back. His despair. My despair. One and the same.

"You failed." He was clinging to me now, the anguish of his past and my future swarmed around us.

"They're dead. All of them. They sacrificed themselves... all for nothing. we let them die for nothing!" His voiced shook with a sadness I had never known. "Why?"

"No..." I croaked the word. I could see my hope as is left.

"Why did we let this happen? Why didn't we stop it? Why couldn't we stop it?"

I couldn't speak, his words squeezed at my throat. _No..._

"..lone...alone...all alone. We left them."

My mind attempted to push at his words. Tried to yank away at their hold with frantic hands. It wasn't enough. It was too much. As each moment passed they drew me closer to the end. I was about to accept it, my weakness ached for it to be over.

Something deep down raced up, I could see it. Like a light shooting up from the deepest tunnel. It shot forward and tackled my numb acceptance. Defiance fueled me and my hope returned.

"NO!" I pushed out of his embrace; my embrace.

_Some things cannot be helped. But there are some that can. Whichever the one, you never stop trying. That is what will decide the outcome, it only ends the same if you let it._

I opened my eyes to never close them again.

_End_

_Thanks for reading! Reviews and any critique are much appreciated!  
_


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